The present invention relates to fiber and wire management in telecommunication systems and, more particularly, to panel assemblies for maintaining excess cable and wire in a coiled condition.
In telecommunication systems, long lengths of cable and wire may be employed between points. To avoid having to replace an entire length of cable or wire in the event of a break or other failure in the cable or wire at one of the end points, it is generally desirable to provide extra cable or wire of about 1-3 meters in length, and this excess is coiled and stored within the housing or elsewhere adjacent the terminating device.
Indicative of the types of panel structures which have been employed for this purpose are those shown in Smith et al U.S. Pat. No. 4,850,901, Deusser et al U.S. Pat. No. 4,886,336, Devilla U.S. Pat. No. 4,976,510, Richter et al U.S. Pat. No. 5,421,532, Orlando U.S. Pat. No. 5,724,469 and Regester U.S. Pat. No. 5,737,475. Generally, such structures have required a fixed structure about which the cable or wire is coiled, were limited to coiling a single cable about the supporting structure and did not afford the ability to vary the circumference of the coil.
It is an object of the present invention to provide a novel bend limiting fiber management clip which can be easily assembled on panels or other substrates so as to avoid excessive bending of the fiber or wire wound thereabout.
It is also an object to provide such a clip which can be readily and economically fabricated.
Another object is to provide such a fiber management clip which can be utilized to provide fiber management structures in which the circumference of the coil may be varied and in which multiple cables can be coiled.
A further object is to provide bend limiting fiber and wire installations utilizing such clips.